By IANS,
New Delhi : He has become the darling of Lok Sabha hopefuls. So much so that Bollywood actor Salman Khan is campaigning for politicians cutting across party lines.
He has been wooed by actor-politician Vinod Khanna of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Pathankot.
Salman also conducted a highly successful road show for the Congress’ Mumbai South candidate Milind Deora. While the actor was mobbed by delirious crowds, Milind, for once, preferred to let him hog the limelight.
Wednesday afternoon, he began a hugely attended road show for the Congress’ Mumbai North-Central candidate Priya Dutt.
Unfortunately for his fans, Salman is strictly sticking to decorum – no more removing shirts and dancing in jeans…in case the eagle-eyed Election Commission officials take note!
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She’s got a ticket to scuba dive
The Congress candidate from Mumbai North-Central constituency, Priya Dutt, knows how to swim and also sink – courtesy her qualification as a scuba diver!
Interacting with journalists during a poll meet, she spoke about her aquatic passion. Later her aides said she had acquired the skill in the Maldives and holds a certificate entitling her to pursue her hobby anywhere in the world.
So far Priya has plunged to staggering depths of 150 ft. Post polls, she wants to pursue scuba diving with renewed vigour. At least, there will be no politics down below!
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Message in a bottle
We have all heard of the message in a bottle, but a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate from Himachal Pradesh has just given it a new meaning.
Handbills for Virender Kashyap, who is fighting for the Shimla Lok Sabha seat, are being given out by a liquor outlet. They are being wrapped over alcohol bottles to promote Kashyap among the customers.
The move has prompted Congress leader Kaul Singh Thakur to say the BJP is taking “the help of political intoxication to win the elections”.
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Steps…so NCP leader slips away
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supremo Sharad Pawar was in Panaji, but the party’s Goa chief Wilfred D’Souza managed to give him the slip.
D’Souza’s ‘inability’ to accompany Pawar to the inauguration of the party’s youth wing office and a subsequent press conference on the third floor of a building almost left the latter red-faced.
D’Souza has lately vented his ire at the NCP top bosses, including Pawar and Praful Patel, accusing them of ignoring him.
When the media asked Pawar about the conspicuous absence of D’Souza and his confidantes on the dais, Pawar quipped: “Our party president told us that he could not climb stairs to the third floor.
“We permitted him to stay away.”
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A well and truly urban constituency
While most Lok Sabha seats have a fair amount of urban and rural areas for politicians to cover during campaigns, Chandigarh enjoys the unique distinction of being essentially an urban one.
The 114-sq km union territory – which is the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana and was designed in post-independence India by French architect Le Corbusier – has just one Lok Sabha seat.
Though there are nearly a dozen villages in the union territory, most of them reflect an extension of the city’s urban lifestyle. Given the limited area, the leaders do not have to travel long distances or spend too much time in rural areas.
Of course, like most metros, they have to pay a lot of attention to slum areas – the real war zone that could mean victory or defeat for candidates.